Tuesday, January 28, 2014
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Beware of the Florida sun! Especially if you're an office-white Northerner. Yeah, that's the voice of experience! I started out for a walk on a Florida beach before the burning hours, which is supposed to be like 10:00 a.m., right? That didn't help me because I can burn next to a 60-watt light bulb.
So I put lotion on the exposed spots. That is, most of the exposed spots. I didn't put any on my legs, and I was wearing shorts. I walked farther than I had planned. I was out later than I had planned, but I avoided a sunburn except for the legs, which one of my kids affectionately called "lobster legs" after that. I knew my legs where okay I went there, but we sure weren't getting along too well that night.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Unprotected Area Gets Burned."
Our word for today from the Word of God; we're in Ephesians 4:27. It's very plain and very simple, "Do not give the Devil a foothold." Now you combine that with 1 Peter 5:8 that says, "He's a roaring lion, looking for whom he may devour." And I think you should realize that the Devil is looking for a place to get into your heart, your mind, your life, your family. Don't give him one. Don't give the Devil, as one translation says, "a place to stand." In other words, don't leave a part of your life unguarded-unprotected, because you can be sure he will burn you there.
There's a wise old saint of another generation who told us that the Devil would use one of three loves to bring you down: The love of money, the love of power, or the love of women...or men perhaps in your case. Three ugly loves. Which one is the weakness Satan could most readily use in your life? I hope you know, because he sure does. He targets that. If he's attacking your weakness and you're not attacking it; if you're not acknowledging and protecting that weak area, you are headed for a fall.
The Bible seems to allude to those three loves in 1 John 2:16, "Everything in the world; the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world." Maybe you have a weakness in the area of money, or the things money can buy. That's your exposed area, and your enemy is going to take you out there. Or maybe you're vulnerable in the love of power; the desire to control, to be noticed, to be important, to manipulate, to get ahead. Satan knows that. So he's devising ways to use that to lead you into sin. Or maybe your weakness is with the opposite sex. You can be sure the Devil is pulling you toward a compromise in that area.
Whatever your exposed area, the enemy will try first to lure you into some small, seemingly harmless "this won't hurt" little compromise. And then step by step he will pull you slowly into sin you never dreamed you'd commit. So many people who have been there could look back and tell you, "Go back now when it's small. You have no idea where it's going to go." Don't give your enemy a place. Fight the very first little compromise. Protect yourself in that area where you're vulnerable. First you do it through regular clean up. Every morning you begin by confessing any sin in that area; any little beginnings of sin in that area, and clean up so you get started by repenting each morning in your area of weakness.
Then a regular checkup. You need someone who will regularly check up on your progress in winning over this thing; someone who will hold you accountable. And then a regular giving up; giving that area to the Lordship of Jesus Christ each new day, acknowledging you're powerless against it, and acknowledging Christ's power over it. That's like your spiritual suntan lotion; it's protection over the spot that might otherwise get burned.
I didn't have to get burned that day on the beach. There was protection available; I just left part of me unprotected. Don't make that mistake with the vulnerable spot in your life. What you surrender to Jesus, He'll protect. And what Jesus' protects, Satan cannot burn.